E 

687 
.CT 


3*wijw  BammetcM  Jldwt/ti&w. 


Bancroft  Ubrarl 


AT 


FORT    STREET    CHURCH, 


IN    MEMORY    OF 


ES 


n  A  nlBj 


_A_  D  D  jEv»  .1^]  o  S 

BY 


HONOLULU,    H.    I.,    OCT.    6,   1881. 


P.  C.  Advertiser,  Steam  Print, 


MEMORIAL    ADDRESS.    . 

Bancroft  Library 


AMERICANS,  REPRESENTATIVES  OF  OTHER 
NATIONS,  FRIENDS,  BROTHERS  ! — (for  "  one 
touch  of  pity  makes  the  whole  world  kin :") 

At  last  the  stroke  so  long  dreaded  has 
fallen.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD,  20th  President 
of  the  United  States,  is  dead  !  But  we've 
lost  more  than  a  mere  President — that  were 
small  loss  indeed,  and  easily  replaced  by 
another  man  standing  for  a  moment  with 
uplifted  hand.  Death  has  taken  from  us 
a  true  soldier,  a  conscientious  statesman, 
a  self-denying  patriot,  a  Christian  gentle- 
man, and  a  model  man  in  every  relation  of 
life.  And  to  every  American  there  is  a 
still  nearer,  more  heart-touching  sense  of 
loss:  During  these  awful  days  and 
months,  since  the  2d  of  July,  when  the 
miscreant's  bullet  did  its  dreadful  work, 
a  sense  of  kinship  for  the  sufferer  has 
grown  into  the  hearts  of  fifty  millions  of 
Americans.  We've  lost  a  dear  friend,  a 
brother,  as  well  as  a  ruler.  And  so,  this 
seems  a  time  for  tears,  and  not  for  words. 

"  Weep  !  for  the  word  is  spoken — • 

Mourn  !  for  the  knell  is  tolled — 
The  master-chord  is  broken, 

And  the  master-hand  is  cold. 
The  warrior's  deeds  are  over, 

A  Nation  mourns  her  Chief; 
All  patriot  hearts  are  riven, 

All  bosoms  swell  with  grief. 

"  His  fame  had  spread  around  him — 

It  compassed  all  the  land; 
His  name  was  sung  by  every  tongue 

And  cheered  by  every  hand. 
He  came,  to  win  fresh  laurels, 

But  fate  was  in  their  breath, 
And  turned  his  march  of  triumph. 

Into  a  dirge  of  death. 

"  O,  all  that  knew  him  loved  him, 

B'or  with  his  noble  mind 
He  bore  himself  so  meekly, 

His  heait,  it  was  so  kind  ! 
He's  gone  !  but  yet  behind  him 

He  leaves  a  glorious  name; 
Death  cannot  blight  his  laurels, 

Nor  time  inspire  his  fame." 


The  simple  story  of  his  life  is  so  elo- 
quent, so  truly  American,  that  no  country- 
man of  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD  ever  tires  at  its 
frequent  repetition.  Born  in  1831,  the 
year  1840  finds  him  an  uncouth  orphan 
boy  struggling  along  the  prosaic  dead 
level  of  life  on  a  farm;  a  few  years  later 
we  see  him  enduring  the  hardships  and 
drudgery  of  a  canal-boatman's  experience ; 
at  eighteen  years  of  age  an  ambitions 
student  in  an  academy;  the  next  year  a 
country  school  teacher,  earning  money  to 
continue  his  studies;  at  twenty-three  a 
hard  working  student  in  William's  Col- 
lege ;  four  years  later  a  college  graduate, 
and  a  Professor  in  a  College,  struggling 
against  debts  occurred  in  educating  him- 
self; at  the  age  of  twenty-eight  a  College 
President  and  a  State  Senator;  in  1860, 
then  only  twenty-nine,  a  man  of  influence 
throughout  his  State;  in  1861  Colonel  of 
the  42nd  Ohio  Infantry,  commander  of  a 
brigade,  driving  forward  with  resistless 
energy  into  Eastern  Kentucky,  and 
against  superior  numbers  winning  the  first 
noted  battle  in  the  West;  in  1862  a  Brig- 
adier General  and  Chief  of  Staff  to  Gen. 
Rosecrans,  Commander  of  the  Army  of 
the  Cumberland;  then  the  same  year  a 
Major  General;  in  1863  reluctantly  leav- 
ing the  army  to  take  his  seat  in  Congress 
as  the  successor  of  Joshua  R.  Giddings ; 
re-elected  eight  times,  almost  without  op- 
position in  his  own  party,  and  from  the 
first  taking  the  position  of  an  acknowl- 
edged leader  in  Congress;  in  1880,  receiv 
ing,  unsought,  the  unanimous  nomination 
by  his  party  for  United  States  Senator, 


and  a  triumphant  election;  in  the  same 
year,  while  earnestly  working  for  the 
nomination  of  another,  made  against  his 
protest,  the  standard  bearer  of  the  Repub- 
lican party,  and  elected  President  of  the 
United  States.  How  marvelous  this  bare 
outline  of  his  life  seems  as  we  recount  it 
to-day  !  In  what  other  land  than  Amer- 
ica is  such  a  success  possible  ? 

And  yet  this  eminently  successful  and 
typical  American  life  was  no  accident.  It 
rested  on  solid  foundations.  We  must 
look  within  a  man,  and  not  without  him, 
for  the  secret  of  success.  The  man  him- 
self, and  not  his  circumstances  or  sur- 
roundings shape  his  future.  His  aspira- 
tions, his  energy,  his  courage,  his 
strength  of  will — these  are  what  deter- 
mine his  success  or  failure. 

The  traits  of  that  character  which  the 
world  has  learned  to  revere,  and  which 
every  American  loves,  appeared  early  in 
JAMES  A.  GARFIELD.  Perseverance,  mental 
power,  truthfulness,  and  generosity  of 
nature — these  were  what  made  him  great. 
Possessing  these  qualities ,  in  America,  he 
could  not  fail  of  becoming  a  marked  man 
and  winning  distinction.  He  was  from 
the  people  and  of  the  people,  a  natural 
product  of  our  system  of  Government  and 
national  life. 

JAMES  A.  GARFIELD  simply  reaped  the 
harvest  which  his  own  hard-working  hands 
sowed.  The  only  genius  he  had  was  a 
genius  for  good,  plain,  honest,  hard  work. 
This  was  the  "  open  secret "  of  his  marvel- 
ous success.  He  became  the  grand  man 
he  was  because  nature  gave  him  a  strong 
mind  in  a  strong  body,  and  he  developed 
and  used  this  endowment.  With  untiring 
patience  and  industry  he  fitted  himself  for 
usefulness.  On  the  brain  and  brawn  of 
the  West  he  grafted  the  culture  and 


learning  of  the  East,  and  then  used  these  for 
country,  for  humanity,  for  God. 

Pure  and  courageous  as  a  boy ;  ambi- 
tious and  self-reliant  as  a  young  man ;  en- 
thusiastic and  painstaking  as  a  teacher; 
tireless  and  brave  as  a  soldier;  bold  and 
aggressive,  but  even-tempered  and  just  as 
a  Congressional  leader;  broad  and  com- 
prehensive, trusting  to  principle  and  right 
and  scorning  the  temporary  success  won 
by  tricks  of  demagagues,  as  a  statemen ; 
never  owing  a  "machine,"  but  winning 
success  by  ability,  by  devotion  to  the  pub- 
lic good,  and  by  his  straight  forward 
honesty,  as  a  politician;  as  President, 
sorely  tried,  but  bearing  himself  with 
such  patience,  firmness  and  wisdom  that  the 
Nation  soon  saw  that  the  right  man  was  in 
the  right  place — that  the  man  whom  they 
had  made  First  Citizen  was  just,  patriotic, 
broad  and  liberal  in  his  judgment  and 
firm  as  a  rock,  the  President  of  the  whole 
Nation  and  not  of  a  section,  or  a  political 
party ;  as  a  man  and  a  citizen  he  was  so 
hearty,  so  sympathetic,  so  loving  of  the 
life  around  him,  of  his  family,  of  his 
friends,  his  State,  and  his  country,  it  is  no 
marvel  that  America  loved  him  and  hon- 
ored him  while  living,  and  that  she 
mourns  him  broken-heartedly,  and  incon- 
solably,  when  dead. 

"  O'er  GABFIELD'S  tomb,  with  silent  grief  oppressed, 
COLUMBIA  mourns  her  hero  now  at  rest. 

But  those  bright  laurels  never  fade  with  years, 
Whose  leaves  are  watered  with  a  Nation's  tears." 

We  do  not  live — or  die — to  ourselves 
alone.  Certainly  such  a  man  as  JAMES  A. 
GARFIELD  does  not!  This  noble  life,  this 
heroic  sick  room,  and  the  sad  death,  is  full 
of  lessons.  Let  me  put  a  few  of  them 
into  words : 

1.  We  have  here  an  admirable  illustra 
tion  of  the  true  idea  of  greatness. 

What  says  the  Christ?  "Whosoever  will 


be  (jrcaied  among  you  let  him  be  your 
sercant."  To  no  man  in  American  history, 
not  even  to  WASHINGTON  or  LINCOLN  could 
the  term  "public  servant" — so  often  abused 
and  a  misnomer— be  so  fully  applied  as  to 
JAMES  A.  GARFIELD.  Wrote  George  Alfred 
Townsend  last  year:  "GARFIELD  has  been 
the  drudge  of  his  State,  of  his  constitu- 
ents, of  the  public,  of  educational  institu- 
tions and  moral  societies  and  of  his  party 
and  of  the  country  since  1860. "  He  never 
Sought  place;  the  places  always  sought 
the  man.  He  put  the  business  of  others 
before  his  own.  He  gave  his  best  thought, 
and  his  best  years  in  incessant  toil  for  the 
public  good.  In  our  money  loving,  self- 
seeking  age,  how  refreshing  it  is  to  find 
such  a  devoted  unselfish  life.  But  thank 
God  he  did  not  labor  without  reward.  No 
man  working  with  such  a  spirit  ever  does. 
Gladly  walking  in  the  pathway  of  service, 
seeking  not  his  own  but  other's  good, 
that  pathway  led  him  steadily  upward  till 
he  became  the  "greatest"  among  a  Nation 
of  fifty  millions  of  people. 

2.  His  was  a  pure,  noble,  Christian  life. 
He  was  so  great  because  he  was  so  Christ- 
like.  In  the  language  of  his  grief-stricken 
Pastor,  as  he  stood  a  few  days  ago  in  the 
great  throng  in  Washington  looking  into 
the  loved  dead  face: 

"  The  glory  of  this  man,  as  we  think  of 
him  now,  was  his  discipline  in  the  school 
of  Christ.  His  attainments  as  a  scholar, 
and  a  statesman  will  be  the  theme  of  ora- 
tors and  historians,  and  they  must  be 
worthy  men  to  speak  praiseworthy.  But 
it  is  as  Christians  that  we  love  to  think  of 
him  now.  It  was  that  which  made  his  life 
to  man  an  invaluable  boon,  and  his  death 
to  us  an  unspeakable  loss.  He  was  no  sect- 
arian. His  religion  was  as  broad  as  the 
religion  of  Christ.  He  was  a  simple  Chris- 


tian, bound  by  no  sectarian  ties,  and 
wholly  in  fellowship  with  all  pure  spirits. 
He  was  a  Christologist  rather  than  a  theo- 
logist." 

His  was  that  unswerving,  heroic  type  of 
Christianity,  so  rarely  seen  in  earth's  high 
places.  Principle,  not  policy,  ruled  his 
life.  He  valued  his  manhood  more  than 
party — right  more  than  success.  He  never 
sold  his  birth-right  as  a  Christian  for  the 
"  pottage  "  of  place  or  power.  Just  after 
his  unsought  election  to  the  United  States 
Senate,  in  his  speech  of  thanks  to  the  Ohio 
Legislature,  he  said: 

"  I  have  represented  for  many  years  a 
district  in  Congress,  whose  approbation  I 
greatly  desired ;  but,  though  it  may  seem 
egotistical  to  say  it,  I  yet  desired  still  more 
the  approbation  of  one  person,  and  his 
name  is — GAKFIELD.  And  if  I  should  be  so 
unfortunate  as  to  lose  the  confidence  of 
this  larger  constituency,  I  must  do  what 
every  other  fair  minded  man  has  to  do — 
carry  his  political  life  in  his  hand  and  take 
the  consequences.  But  I  must  follow 
what  seems  to  me  the  only  safe  rule  of  my 
life — my  conscience" 

There  we  feel  the  main-spring  of  this 
grand  life — a  conscience  enlightened  by  the 
Holy  Spirit,  trained  in  the  school  of 
Christ,  and  followed  unflinchingly  at  all 
times,  and  at  all  hazards. 

3.  There  comes  to  every  thinking  -man 
to-day  a  new  and  deeper  meaning  to  the 
words  "  son,"  "  husband,"  "  father," 
"mother,"  "home." 

How  wondrously  sweet,  and  beautiful, 
and  touching,  and  tender,  and  heroic  was 
the  GARFIELD  family  and  home  life !  Glance 
at  only  a  few  points  in  the  picture. 

It  is  1833.      A  "  little  mother  "   stand 
alone  in  her    grief  and  poverty.    With 
energy,   faith  and    courage  she  resolves 


that  the  four  fatherless  little'  ones  shall 
not  be  separated— that  they  shall^still  have 
a  home.  The  battle  was  a  hard  one,  but  she 
won  it.  With  her  needle  she  earned  money 
to  provide  for  the  scanty  home,  and  to  pay 
her  children's  tuition.  A  few  years  later, 
when  James,  the  youngest,  resolves  to  ob- 
tain an  education,  this  "little  mother" 
puts  in  his  hands  a  small  sum  of  money — 
every  cent  of  it  coined  by  hard  work  and 
self-denial — and  with  her  blessing  he  goes 
out  from  that  humble  home.  Thirty-three 
years  later,  when  that  boy,  now  a  strong 
man,  stands  in  front  of  the  Capitol  at 
Washington  with  bared  head  and  uplifted 
hand  to  take  the  oath  of  his  high  office  as 
Chief  Magistrate,  is  it  any  wonder  that  he 
turns  away  from  all  the  great  men,  and 
the  great  throng,  to  the  "  little  grey-haired 
mother,"  and  with  a  kiss  seeks  her  con- 
gratulations first  of  all?  That  day  the  Son 
was  greater  than  the  Chief  Magistrate  ! 
And  that  other  brave  woman — the  farmer's 
daughter,  the  pupil,  the  teacher  in  the 
public  school,  the  loving  wife  of  a  poor 
man,  growing  with  her  husband's  growth, 
strengthening  with  his  strength,  always  a 
help,  never  a  hindrance — this  faithful  wife 
and  mother,  LUCKETIA  A.  GABFIELD — how 
the  strong  man  loved  her,  and  how  much 
he  owed  of  his  greatness  and  success  to 
her  only  God  and  himself  know.  If  we 
had  more  such  "little  mothers,"  more  such 
devoted,  noble  wives,  we  should  have  more 
such  men  as  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD. 

As  a  husband  and  farther  he  was  an  ex- 
ample to  his  Nation  and  the  world.  Amid 
all  the  temptations  of  Washington  life  no 
breath  of  scandal  ever  touched  I  his  name. 
He  was  "not  only  pure  but  above  suspi- 
cion." He  had  great  reverence  for  the 
family  relation.  His  love  for  his  children 
was  bountiful  and  generous.  *  Just  after 
his  nomination  at  Chicago,  hundreds  of 


telegrams  came  pouring  in  upon  him — 
such  as  only  Americans,  in  their  rapid, 
good  impulses  pour  upon  a  lucky  friend. 
With  two  volunteer  clerks  the  great  man 
sat  in  his  room  opening  and  reading  them. 
His  two  boys,  little  fellows  at  school,  sent 
him  one.  He  read  it,  tried  to  talk,  but  his 
voice  choked,  his  eyes  filled  with  tears. 
The  father  triumphed  over  the  statesman. 
He  broke  down  and  wept,  as  one  of  those 
boys  would  have  done.  And  the  clerks 
wept  too,  and  the  people  also  when  they 
heard  it. 

"  From  scenes  like  these,"  sang  Burns, 
"  old  Scotia's  grandeur  springs."  "Whether 
in  a  palace  or  a  cottage,  true  love  and 
unity  are  the  sources  of  national  pros- 
perity. It  is  on  the  virtues  of  private  life 
that  all  institutions  rest.  The  sacred  ties 
of  family  and  home  give  strength  to  laws 
and  nations."  He  who  exalts  and  ennobles 
the  family  and  family  life  makes  all  the 
world  his  debtor. 

4.  As  our  great  Nation  and  the  world 
has  watched  by  that  bed  of  pain,  we  have 
learned,  as  never  before,  how  close  of  kin 
we  are.  Blood  is  thicker  than  water. 
AMERICANS  :  Our  grief -stricken  Nation  is 
knitted  together  as  never  before.  Fifty 
millions  of  people  have  watched  for 
months  by  that  heroic  bed.  They  have 
sunk  partyism  in  prayer  for  the  loved  life. 
In  the  language  of  Frank  Pixley:  "We 
mourned  the  murdered  Lincoln  with  anger 
in  our  hearts,,  but  over  the  grave  of  our 
dead  President  all  these  mad  passions  are 
hushed,  all  angry  resentments  are  buried, 
all  unkind  recollections  are  forgotten.  In 
South  and  West,  in  North  and  East,  in  all 
lands  where  civilization  dwells,  in  all 
parties,  and  in  all  divisions  of  parties, 
there  is  only  a  deep  sorrow  and  profound 
regret  over  the  untimely  death  of  our 
murdered  President.  Fifty  millions  o 


united  hearts  beat  in  mournful  refrain 
around  his  dead  body.  The  flags  draped 
in  black,  hanging  at  half  inast,  are  the 
emblems  of  a  common  sorrow  —  the  sin- 
cere and  heartfelt  grief  of  a  united  peo- 
ple. We  step  in  measured  tread  to  the 
sad  music  of  the  funeral  dirge,  and  it 
finds  no  echo  in  the  Nation's  heart  than 
that  of  the  profoundest  grief.  " 

What  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD  could  not  do, 
perhaps,  while  living,  he  has  done  wminded, 
dying,  dead !  He  has  brought  the  country 
together.  North  and  South  have  seen,  as 
never  before,  the  necessity  of  abating  the 
fury  of  faction,  the  great  sin  of  sectional 
strife.  They  have  clasped  hands  over  that 
heroic  bed.  A  blind,  disabled  Confederate 
soldier  voiced  the  common  feeling  of  the 
South  when  he  sent  his  touching  telegram 
praying  for  the  life  of  "our  President  to  be 
spared  to  our  Nation."  That  soldier  saw, 
and  the  South,  at  last,  also  sees,  that  his 
former  foe  was  not  his  enemy ;  that  there 
is  no  longer  a  North  and  a  South,  but  a 
common  country,  a  Nation,  of  which  we 
are  all  proud  to  be  called  citizens. 

5.  Let  me  turn  back  the  pages  of  our  Na- 
tion's history  a  little  that  I  may  make  you 
see  my  last  thought  more  clearly : 

It  is  April,  1865.  The  war-clouds  which, 
for  four  long  years  have  overhung  our 
land,  dropping  their  bloody  rain,  are  be- 
ginning to  break,  and  to  be  "  rolled  up  like  a 
scroll,"  when  suddenly,  a  thunderbolt  fell 
out  of  that  departing  storm-cloud;  it 
struck  down  our  choicest  one:  ABRAHAM 
LINCOLN  fell,  stricken  down  by  the  hand  of 
an  assassin.  How  the  wires  quivered  as 
they  carried  over  the  shuddering  land  the 
fatal  news.  How  men's  faces  paled,  and 
all  loyal  hearts  were  wrung  with  agony. 
In  New  York  city,  as  the  news  ran  from 
heart  to  heart,  a  great  crowd  surged  into 
Wall  sti'eet,  with  gleaming  eyes,  com- 


pressed lips,  set  teeth,  and  blanched  faces ; 
with  vengeance  in  every  heart,  with 
dread,  and  terror  and  a  fearful  foreboding 
as  they  thought  of  the  future — the  crowd 
become  a  mob  !  Suddenly  a  strong  man 
pushed  his  way  through  that  surging,  liv- 
ing sea,  climbed  some  steps,  and  stood  be- 
fore them.  Something  in  the  face  and 
manner  of  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD  as  he  stood 
there  quieted  that  mob  though  no  one 
knew  who  he  was;  a  death-like  silence 
fell  upon  them;  all  eyes  were  turned  to- 
ward that  strong  face,  as  if  pleading  for 
help.  And  not  in  vain.  One  single  -sen- 
tence from  his  ringing  voice  filled  each 
soul  with  courage  and  hope.  Drawing 
himself  up,  he  said :  "  GOD  REIGNS  !  and 
the  Government  at  Washington  still  lives  /"  So 
I  say  to  you  to-day:  "God  reigns!" 
thanks  be  to  His  name,  and  all  is  well 
The  President  is  DEAD  but  the  NATION 
LIVES,  never  so  strong  as  now.  "  The  Re- 
public is  peace.  The  Government  is  law 
The  Union  is  secure  and  rebaptized  into 
nationality  and  human  rights.  The  peo- 
ple are  brothers.  The  one  flag  floats  from, 
below  the  Gulf  to  either  Portland."  Our 
institutions  are  imperishable.  Sure  as 
the  processions  of  the  seasons,  strong 
as  the  purposes  of  Deity,  country,  liberty, 
progress  and  civilization  go  on.  God  rules. 
"  His  purposes  of  love  for  those  made  in 
His  image  will  not  be  worked  out  world- 
wide, till  the  Angel  who  shall  stand  with 
one  foot  on  sea  and  one  foot  on  land,  shall 
swear  by  Him  that  sitteth  on  the  throne 
and  who  liveth  forever,  with  the  voice  of 
Omnipotence  and  the  warrant  of  con- 
cluded purpose,  that  Time  shall  be  no 
longer." 

"  O,  ye  of  little  faith  ! "  Fear  not.  God's 
plans  never  fail. 

JAMES  A.  GARFIELD  is  dead !    We  cannot 
yet  measure  our  loss.    He  was  a  grander 


8 


man  than  the  world  thought  him  to  be. 

But  the  succession  of  good  men  is  never 
^wholly  broken.  The  gaps  which  are  made 
by  Death  are  filled.  The  ranks  close  up 
and  the  world  moves  on.  Yet,  in  a  hun- 
dred years  there  has  been  but  one  WASH- 
INGTON, one  LINCOLN  and  one  GARFIELD. 


We  know  not  if  in  a  hundred  years  to 
come  there  will  be  other  men  like  them. 
God  grant  that  there  may  be,  and  that  led 
and  governed  by  such  men,  the  Nation  we 
love  "  may  be  a  Nation  whose  God  is  the 
Lord,  and  which  shall  never  perish  from 
the  face  of  the  earth." 


~ 


